Service in Whittier

Hola Familia!! Hey thanks for the letter!! Sounds like you guys had an awesome week full of bday parties and all sorts of fun! I’m super jealous!  Well my week was actually pretty good! This past week we really committed to having members come out with us for lessons and it turned out great! We had one every single night up until Thursday so four in a row! The weekend is pretty hard for them to come out and we had three bail so that was a bummer, but it was a great week. The lessons were awesome. We are teaching a guy named C** right now and he really is in a giant hole in his life. He has a drinking and smoking problem so we have been teaching him the very simple things.  We had a great week of lessons with him, but it is hard with addictions. We are patient with him because that is how you need to handle the situation, but it is very sad and frustrating to see him always so depressed.  We know how to help him, but he doesn't fully want to accept or take action on what we teach.  He promised us he was going to come to church along with three other investigators we have been teaching, but at the last second they decided not to show up.  We even went by on Sunday morning to help get them up and ready to go, so that’s hard because you are just watching the doors at Sacrament meeting.

Helping with a move

This week we also have been busy movers! Haha We have helped three families move into their apartments at our complex. One of which is a recent convert family who was baptized in April and they are a solid family!! I truly love this family and they love having us over.  The B**’s have two kids ages 14 and 9 and they are always asking for us to come over and talk and teach them, etc. which is great! With them moving in and so close we are for sure going to take advantage of the Noche de hogars we can have with them.  They want us to teach them English in exchange for Spanish… which I am down for!  We spent all day Saturday moving them and two other families so it was a busy and sweaty day.  The humidity is killing me out here literally. My clothes are in such bad shape from sweat, tears and stains etc.  I got a flat tire on Friday and accidently got bike grease all over one of my shirts so that one is toast. Ha ha.  Also on Friday, we had a zone conference from 9-3.   Elder Pecht and I just chilled together.  And no, I haven’t been on any more splits with Bubba and I probably won’t unless I stay in this area for one more transfer.  Transfers end on your birthday mom so happy upcoming bday.

Driving home from church

Yesterday was a pretty good day! Church was long and I still don’t really get a lot out of church because of my struggles with Spanish.  It gives me a headache to try to follow all they say.  haha   We had some pretty good success last night. Yesterday, we pulled up to a new area and decided we needed to say a prayer to help us find three new investigators. I know it’s crazy to ask for three for one day, but we just hadn't met our goal for the week and really needed some help.  So we went out on foot to find people. Right then we knocked on a door and found this 16 year old kid who is golden! Literally he has really great potential.  We started talking and he really liked what we had to say.  We then asked him if he would be comfortable in saying a closing prayer to see how he would feel about pursing our messages more in the future.  We bowed our heads and folded our arms and all of this is on his front porch (btw) The next thing I know, it is silent.... for like 5 minutes... Seriously, not kidding.  It was so weird, he just stood there praying while we stood there silent. He said, “Okay that was good!"  “I feel good about it, you guys can come over some other time and I’m sure my brother will want to join too!”  Sweet! we were pumped! We aren't saying he is an investigator yet, but he has some real potential.  About five minutes later, we saw a group of kids out playing basketball in the street. There were 4 boys and 2 girls from the ages of 9 to probably 16.  Their ball rolled down the street and came right to where I was walking so I picked it up and started contacting them. We challenged them to a game of basketball and of course they just laughed at us.  They were like, “What do you want, etc.?”   We told them that if we win, we get to talk to them and their parents about our message, but if they win we have to do a ton of push-ups and never come back. haha.  They accepted and we started playing literal street ball in our "pros" clothes. haha   It was pretty weird… I will be honest, but Elder H** and I did our work and the hoop was maybe 9 feet, so the hoop was easily dunk-able.  It was great! We had a great time and after we won (of course) we went over to talk to their dad with them. Sadly, their dad didn't want to have anything to do with us so we didn't actually get a lesson in, but hey it was still fun!

Well that pretty much sums up my week.   It was good!   We’re hoping this week is just as good if not better. I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all your love and support love you guys!

Hasta Luego

E. Woffinden

Happy 4th of July!

LA Temple

Hey!! What’s up family!! How was everybody’s week!?  A lot of funny stories happened this week and I wish I could tell them all and tell them in detail!  It’s super hard to explain over email, and I guess it’s also better when you see it in person. Haha

Well at the start of this week we had a really awesome FHE with the familia ….’E’!  We had a great lesson of El Espiritu Santo and how we can better prepare ourselves to listen and follow the promptings of the spirit. We then had dinner and played a game called, "Amas a tus vecinas", which is, "How much do you love your neighbor." It was really fun and got pretty intense.  Haha  We have a goal to make better relationships with the families in our area, and I feel like we succeeded on Monday night, so it was great!  Later we went to a lesson with the bishop but sadly ‘C’ cancelled on us so we didn’t get to teach him which was sad because we had the bishop with us.  It didn’t stop there... we had four (member present) lessons fall through this week all of which the investigator cancelled or just didn’t answer their door.  It’s really frustrating and hard trying to get help from the members, and then when they come with us and the our lesson cancels.... No Bueno. 

Foot massage with a lesson.  Anyone??

We did have one last night that got beyond weird. Haha  So we invited a Hermana from our ward to a lesson with ‘R’ and his grandma.  So when we arrived the ward member immediately clicked and started talking to the grandma which was great!  So we started the lesson and everything was fine until the next thing I know the grandma puts her legs on Hermana ‘O’ and hands her a bottle of lotion while speaking Spanish. I clearly didn’t understand because right then our member starts giving her a full on leg/foot massage in the middle of our lesson!!! AHH!!   We were freaking out!  Our member completely forgot what she was there for, and the lesson ended up being a nightmare! We didn’t even finish because we couldn’t believe what was going on. ‘R’ just started laughing which made us start laughing so we just stopped the lesson. To make a long story short, last night just turned out so different than what we had hoped for, but that’s mission life!   

What did everyone do for the 4th?? Any cool firework shows or BBQs?  We just rode our bikes around all day knocking doors because we didn’t have any set lessons.  We interrupted a ton of drunk BBQs which instantly, when they saw us, we became the main topic of conversation and they were laughing about us.   It was super hard to watch the firework shows from our bikes riding up Leffingwell Street.  It made me super homesick thinking about all the firework shows, BBQs and rodeos I would be going to if I were home, and here I am riding a bike at 9 pm at night.

Elder H and I at LA Temple

So today we went to the LA temple for the 5:30 am session!  It was great! We had to get up at 3:15 am and I am exhausted.  I can’t believe how many cars are on the road at 5 am here in LA!  We almost didn’t make the session in time, but I’m glad we did because it was awesome. The LA temple is probably one of the coolest I have been in, besides the SLC, of course!  It’s huge and has a great view of LA off in the distance and the Hollywood sign over on the hill so I got some cool pics!

We are going to watch the Brazil vs Germany game today with a member so I am excited for that! The world cup is now one of my favorite things to watch.. it’s great! And everybody here is obsessed with it.  People skip church for the games, etc. haha.

But on a more serious side, this week was honestly pretty hard considering all the dropped lessons and investigators who said they would come to church early Sunday morning and didn’t show. The Spanish is pretty tough especially now with me interacting more with the members.  I feel like I understand them enough to get what they are saying, but wanting to share what I’m thinking or contribute to a conversation, this is still impossible for me. But with that being said, I’m still working hard and am trying my best every day!  Don’t worry about me out here in CA.   I’m doing fine :)  Thanks for the package btw! It was great! Haha so much stuff crammed in there, I was shocked.  But thanks for everything and all your love and support! I hope you all have a great week and until next week... nos vemos!

Elder Woffinden

Elder H and I

Teaching with my homie, Elder Pecht!

HEY!! What’s up family!! Hey thanks again for the emails! I love hearing how everything is going.  This week has been pretty good.  We taught 2 families that are showing really good potential in progressing with hearing the message so I’m hoping for this week to be a good one.  Tonight we are having a noche de hogar con la famila E and it’s going to be on the Holy Ghost and how we can feel he answers our questions through our feelings and thoughts etc.  We are also going to be teaching a non-member tonight as well.   I really hope the lesson goes well!  Pray for my Spanish haha.  It needs all the help it can get! We also have the Obispo (bishop) say that he could come out tonight to teach C and N, a really solid family we found.   They really have no background of religion besides being Catholic by tradition and never actually acting on their faith.   So tonight should be great!

Well this week I went on exchanges with Elder Pecht! It was so sweet! Just two homies from home in the same mission is pretty sweet! We had a really great day even though we had to cover both his and my area which is giant! So we were in the car for the whole day. ha.  We had to cover my area therefore meaning it was Spanish and Elder Pecht doesn’t speak Spanish at all.  We had a couple lessons planned for the afternoon that I knew I was going to be the only one who could communicate to these people and I was trippin!  Ha I was so scared and I was dreading the hour when it came because it was all on my shoulders to teach, understand, and extend commitments.  So Elder Pecht gave me just the best pump up speech in the world on how I am going to just give a bomb lesson and everything is going to be great and to not have any worries. Then once we arrived he said, “Well with all that being said, this should be fun to watch!" haha and I about died.  She wasn’t home...  so I didn’t have to give the lesson after all.  Then we saw one of our old investigators in the street and he invited us to come inside.   Then I did have to give the lesson in all Spanish so I couldn’t escape.  Ha ha.  The lesson went well, but it was for sure bad Spanish, but it was a funny moment for us to experience together.

This week Elder H and I made some new goals.  One was to sit by a new family every week at church to get to know them and become friends.   Missionary work doesn’t work without the members!  It’s so true, knocking doors and contacting in the streets only get you so far so we hope to build a good relationship with them.

You said you wanted to know more about Elder H...  Well he is the District leader here and he has been out for 9 months.  He has the best ties in the mission in my opinion. haha   We get along pretty good he brought some weights with him from his last apartment so we lift in the mornings now.  We both are meat head junkies that loved to pump iron before we came out so we get along great. ha  We have a zone meeting coming up on the 18th of July and we are going to the temple on the 8th!   That means my next p-day won’t be until next Tuesday, so plan on that.  I’m doing good and things are moving along and improving slowly but surely.  I hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for all the love and support!!

Hasta luego!

Elder Woffinden

No time to send any pictures this week!

We Had a Pretty Good Week!

HOLA familia!! Que honda!?

Meet my new companion. He gets a thumbs up!

Thanks for the email! Im glad to hear how good things are back home!! But mom, I hope you have a blast at Lake Powell! I am beyond jealous! I wish I was at the lake getting some sun wake boardin’ it up!

Well this past week was good! And my new comp Elder H is a really cool guy. He is 19 from Payson, Utah and loves to play basketball which is fantastic! We are going to play after I write this letter. He has been out for 9 months and though my first companion, Elder H’s Spanish is way better, we still manage to get by on what we know, haha. We found 9 new investigators this week! We even had a random lady stop us on the road and gave us a referral (which didn’t turn out), but still it was some success. We have been doing well and had one of the better weeks I’ve had while on my mission. However, my Spanish is still a huge hill I am climbing for sure. This past week we met all kinds of good people and performed some service for a lady who needed her leaves raked from her lawn which eventually turned into a Lesson 1 and a return appointment, ha, it was cool. She will have to be passed on to the English elders this week though if we are able to meet with her again, but it’s still all the same work.

Elder H saying goodbye to T before leaving.

Unfortunately Eddie, Tony’s brother, isn't getting baptized--the elders ended up dropping him!!! We were so upset. He was on fire with us, but then somehow lost interest when we gave him over to the Young Adult Elders. It’s really hard to hear that, but I hope that one day he will talk to the missionaries again and get that final push he needs. We also have been working with one of my favorite families, the M’s, this week. They are less active and are way fun to be around and talk to. We have tried so hard to get Hna. M to attend church. We went by their house like 5 times this week and she still didn’t attend on Sunday, so that was hard. In the end people still have their agency to choose whether to go or not. We also have been teaching Hno. E, a less active son of the familia E who are active in the ward. Both he and his girlfriend T, who is Catholic, allowed us to teach them on Wednesday and came to church yesterday! Though they only stayed for Sacrament Meeting it was still great to see them there! We have a return appointment this Wednesday, so I’m hoping that it goes well and we can get them

Hno. P, the funniest guy in the ward.

excited about the message we have. Elder H and I, as a form of finding people to teach have been going by Parnell Park to challenge people to a game of basketball. If we win, they let us teach them, and if we lose, we leave them alone, haha! Sadly, nobody has accepted our offer yet, but we are going to keep trying this week, so I’m pumped for that, haha. It’s weird having a new district and companion. I was so used to my last one and then all of a sudden, a huge change happened within 12 hours, ha.

We also have been going crazy with the World Cup. My whole ward doesn’t talk about anything else, haha. Yesterday we were able to watch the U.S. play Portugal which was a great game! Don’t worry, we only saw the last 10 minutes of the game. We were out contacting and came across a super cool Catholic guy who asked us to watch the ending, and we couldn’t say no. So yeah, ha!

Well that sums up my week; it was pretty good! I hope we continue to have the success and a good attitude about the work. I hope all is well and I hope your week is great! Thanks for all the support and love!

Love,

Elder Woffinden

Transfers are Here, I Get a New Companion

My District in Whittier

Hey Familia!! How’s it going?? Thanks for the email they are always appreciated! Also thanks for all the letters and things you send me! It really makes my week better. Well this past week flew by! I am officially done with my training and Elder H. leaves tomorrow in the morning for LB East.  Lucky him because that’s the area that is having the most success. haha   But it’s crazy to think it’s over.  My new comps name is Elder H. and I will meet him tomorrow.  Hopefully, he is a cool dude.  I know nothing about him so sorry.  Well, this week was good, we taught some really cool people and got two new investigators this week.  They are just like

Me and Elder Pecht

the normal nice friendly catholic people who just let you in because they can’t say no.    Maybe they will turn into something down the road who knows.   We also taught a less active lady this week her name is A. and she is awesome! She wants her 21 year old son to serve a mission, and he honestly hates us. haha   I told her my experience in the best Spanish I could and it was great.  She started crying and my comp and I almost did too! The spirit was so strong there!  She came to Stake Conference on Sunday, too so I am really happy for her!  I hope we can work with her sons because I know exactly what’s going on in their heads and I feel I can help them, but they just hate us so... who knows.  We talked to a ton of crazy people this week.  You can find some of the funniest people just walking or riding along the streets.

After mountain biking, I thought I could use a bath.

We went mountain biking today for starters! It was awesome and it felt so good to do something really fun for once!  Yeah the mountains here definitely suck compared to home.  However, it was nice to get out of the dirty smog.  This past week we talked to J (an old former investigator).  He let us in because he was watching the World Cup just like everybody here (I will explain more later), but basically it was to tell us that he watched a video about Mormons and how now he doesn’t ever want to be one. It was an anti-LDS video which just filled his mind with all sorts of crap and crazy stuff!  It was awful and we tried to talk to him about it, but he just wouldn’t have it.  It was hard losing J because he really was like a friend to us, not just a guy we used to teach.   

Taking in the view!

We had to leave and probably won’t see him for a while.  Now back to the World Cup, wow it is crazy here. ha-ha People in our ward and in Whittier in general are losing their minds over it!  Nobody answers the door or phones because they are watching Mexico or another team play.  Honestly, I don’t blame them because I would be too, if I was home.  It just makes missionary work hard. We had a baptism we attended yesterday and the people of the ward didn’t come because the Argentina game was on at the same time.  It’s sad because the girl had nobody there to fellowship here besides 11 missionaries and a few members.  It definitely makes our work harder because we had lessons fall through because the people were too drunk when we got to their homes, and so there was no point teaching them while they are intoxicated.

LA has the worst smog ever!

It’s crazy to think I’m getting a new companion though!  It’s already been 12 weeks!  Once I get used to somebody, I now have to change.. it’s weird.   A lot will now be on my shoulders since my comp won’t know the area and my Spanish isn’t what I wish it would be.  This transfer could be the one where my Spanish and teaching abilities grow because I will now be forced to do a lot more which is good, but it will be hard for sure.

We are having a going away party tonight for a couple Elders at a ward family’s house so I will get some get photos for you all. I hope your week was good, and I hope you all have a great upcoming week!  Thanks for all you do, I really appreciate it. Stay safe and know I love and miss you all very much!  Hasta Luego!

Elder Woffinden

Another Week In Whittier

On our bikes

Hola mi familia!! Como le va??  It sounds like you all had a great week! I’m jealous about the dirty dash!! Sounds super fun! Lots of good times running in the mud of death! haha Yeah, Bubba is here now and I see him about 3 times a week.  He is now teaching T’s brother, E (our investigator that we had to turn over to the single’s ward) They are lucky that we prepared him so they could baptized him! Ha ha  I’m jealous!

This past week has been pretty good, not very successful again but it was still good. We had more bashes again. haha  I swear that’s all our area wants to do is try to fight with us and prove us wrong….it’s crazy. We knocked on a door and a guy answered and was "Oh, the anti-Christs are here!" (all in Spanish)  He invited us in to show us his shrines of La Virgin and Los Papas (the popes)  He started crying saying you are wrong! I am a disciple of Christ! I am! Not you! You are all wrong, etc. We just stood their confused as to what was happening.  We told him who were and why we were there which he rejected and so we left.

Knott's Berry Farm in the distance

The next day we went on exchanges and I went with Elder C who is from AZ, but is a native to Argentina. We had tons of crazy stuff go down.  For starters, we were contacting somebody when we saw a car just stop in the middle of the Leffingwell Intersection.  It was just stalled and wasn’t moving.  I knew for a fact it was because they ran out of gas so I dropped my bag and Elder C and I ran and helped the driver push her car out of the busy road.   She was Latino, and so what a perfect opportunity to help her with service and then share a message. haha. So that’s what we did. We walked with her quite a ways to go get a gas can, and then helped her fill up her car.  As we did this, we talked about our beliefs and we shared Mosiah 2: 17 with her.  We testified about that scripture and how we are always out looking to serve our fellowman. She didn’t want to have a return appointment, but hopefully we left a good impression of missionaries for a future date!  Later that same day, we contacted 5 different people all who accepted to hear our message.  A couple wanted the address to our church and our numbers (of course this isn’t my area).

Chillin in the hot sun! 

Right as we were talking again, we saw a dog come running by us followed by a pitbull barking and losing it’s mind in the yard next to us.  Within seconds that dog somehow escaped from the gate and bolted to the other dog.  This started a crazy fight right next to us.  So we tried to break it up, but it was pretty nuts and there was a couple times I thought I was gonna die.   haha   We did eventually grab the pitbull and throw the crazy animal back to it’s yard.. it was insane.Ha ha  Exchanges were good, I just wish we had that success in my own area. Our area is pretty dead still and we daily contact a ton, but nobody wants us to come over or they just fight with us. We did find two good potentials last night, so we pray that they are going to come through this week because they are golden!!

This week marks the last week of my training and I am 90 percent sure Elder H is leaving the area.  It’s sad because he is a solid comp!  It will be strange getting a new companion. But I hope that he is a super chill, hard working guy because our area needs a lot of work!  The Spanish is coming along little by little. It takes patience, which I lack.  I am hoping to get a native comp because I want to practice and begin to copy them and their accent to sound more official. haha. People are amazed to see two white guys speaking Spanish and they comment on it all the time with their eyes wide open. haha. It’s great when they are talking bad about you and you just walk by and say,  “Hola Hablamos Espanol Tambien” and the look on their faces, its priceless. Ha   But anyways, that’s about it for my week!  Still in the finding of people, but I hope you all have a great week and I love hearing from you all!  It’s packed at the library today so I don’t think they will give us more time.  I’m sorry if I can’t email all of you back!!  Thanks for all you do!  Love you all!

Hasta Luego!

Elder Woffinden

Visit From An Apostle - What a Great Blessing

Buddhist Temple

Hola Familia!! Como Le Va?? I'm doing pretty good! This past week was a crazy one for sure! On Monday, we went to the Buddhist temple which was super cool!! It’s huge and hidden up in the Haciena Heights area which is all mountains so it was awesome being able to go. The Monks there were dope.  haha They even had iphones, etc. and we don’t so we felt jipped!   All the art work and the huge Buddha’s everywhere were pretty cool to see.  It was great to ask questions and to find out more about their culture. They were just as curious to ask us questions, so we spent a lot of time talking about what our beliefs were. They were nice and seemed interested, but in reality they had no idea what we were talking about. haha.

Inside the temple

But later that night, I had a crazy experience one of my first real "bible bashes" out in the mission. We're supposed to stay away from these, but it’s hard to.  So we knocked on this house in the afternoon and a very old woman answered and was so happy to see us!  She knew who we were and said that she used to talk to us before, but her husband refused her to continue speaking to missionaries so she never got taught all the lessons. But anyways, she said that her husband had since died and she wanted to be baptized!! We were like WHAT!? haha   This never happens!

Do I look like the Buddha?

We asked if we could meet with her, but she said that we had to get permission from her granddaughter,who’s house she was living in.  So we had to drop by a couple hours later to ask her granddaughter.  So we go back, and she answers and immediately we knew who she was. She was from the Calvary Chapel church and they hate us.  She instantly looks me in the face and says, "you’re not Christian!" "You don’t believe in Christ, you just pretend like you do, you have a fake book and prophet."   Once she said that it was on with the bash.  She was saying how we are only saved by grace, not by works or baptism, etc.  We were quoting verses out of the Bible, New Testament and even one verse out of the Book of Mormon.   She was like.. "wow, where does it say that in the Bible?"   We are like that was from the Book of Mormon.  Her face was priceless as she tried to get back to arguing with us. I was not happy. It made me realize that we honestly are in a literal "war" with the adversary and he will do everything to bring us down.  Elder H and I were only able to testify that we know what we have is true.  Right as she was about to slam the door on us she said, "you need to honestly look at the facts and then I know you will realize you are wrong and so is your church!"  I had never heard someone actually tell me that before, but we testified and that’s all we could do.  So sadly we can’t meet with J so I just pray she is able to find missionaries some day so she can be baptized.

Carne Asada Food

Anyways, we celebrated two birthdays this week all Carne Asada bashes! ha That has become our new hobby and it is sooo good! But to answer your question about T’s brother we were teaching, we had to send them both to the singles ward elders, and they are now teaching them. E has accepted to be baptized on the 28th of June!! So we are pumped for him! We are now trying to work with his mom because once their mom joins, the whole family will join.

Happy Birthday!!

So this weekend was awesome too! Elder M. Russell Ballard came on Saturday!! It was so crazy! He taught us how to be better missionaries and how we need to be more positive. The spirit he brought with him truly was amazing.  He is actually a really funny guy too which nobody would ever have thought.  He was cracking jokes the whole meeting which was about 2.5 hrs long.  It was so crazy to be able to meet and shake the hand of a living apostle.  I am so glad I was able to have that experience on my mission.

So crazy news that just happened right now as I was emailing, Elder Bubba Pecht just came and tapped my shoulder and is back to the mission and in my zone!! haha   I am so pumped he is back.  Words can’t even describe!  I’m so happy for him to be able to finish his mission here.  Well this week has been nuts. We are talking to a ton of people, but still not too many lessons so hopefully this next week is better!  We are praying for help and we believe it will come just by how we show our faith and prove to God we truly care about his work. 

I hope this past week was good for you all!  Have a great week and have fun! Thanks for all the letters and support you all are awesome! Les Quiero!!

Love, Elder Woffinden

Our new car??